TrackR secures a $50M Series B funding round led by Revolution Growth

TrackR, one of the better known of the little Bluetooth devices that track your lost keys and EDCs (Everyday Carry, don’t you know?) has now gone big with the securing of a $50 million Series B round led by Steve Murray at Revolution Growth. Also participating was the Foundry Group, Amazon Alexa Fund, DoCoMo Capital, The Glenmede Trust and Bespoke Strategies. Prior this the company had raised more than $10 million from some of those investors and angels. Founded in 2009, TrackR has shipped more than five million devices so far.

Chris Herbert, CEO and co-founder, says that the company’s community features, like the TrackR Crowd Locate network, will be expanded. “With this round of funding, we will redefine personal organization by ensuring nothing is ever lost for millions of consumers while continuing to maintain our leadership position in the intelligent tracking space,” he said.

Brad Feld, a partner at Foundry Group, says: “TrackR’s growth rate since our investment has been dramatic.”

At the beginning on the year the company released the TrackR pixel item tracker that uses sound and light to track items, and a partner platform. TrackR is also now integrated with Amazon’s Alexa, which you can ask such things as “Alexa, ask TrackR to find my phone.” Hence the Amazon investment.

The “Works with TrackR” program allows other manufacturers and app developers to incorporate TrackR’s platform into their products. So, for instance, Cross Pens, which makes luxury pens, has integrated TrackR technology into some of its products.

In terms of competitors, there are lots of finder gadgets out there with a single product that works with a single app. But TrackR has scaled by expanding its Works with TrackR standard into products such as wallets, keys etc. It also has TrackR Atlas, a home mapping platform. Many other competitors just rely on Bluetooth proximity to the phone; however, its main competitor, Tile, also has a “community find” feature plus hardware and software partnerships.